Viz

HIST 282: Masquerades in Africa

Instructor: Thabiti Willis
History
Fall 2011

Viz Masquerading Politics Webpage
Viz Masquerades in Africa 2.0 Webpage
Course Description
This course explores the relevance of masks, animated in masquerade performances, to the practice of reconstructing the African past. Students learn (1) how the peoples of Africa have performed masquerades to both record and reenact the past; (2) how nineteenth- and twentieth-century explorers and ethnographers have described masks and masquerades; (3) how various elements of these performances offer evidence from which scholars can reconstruct the past; and (4) how to identify and interpret the paradigms and politics that inform the production of both the masks themselves and the ethnographic accounts of their significance in African culture.

Assignment and Exhibition Materials

Course Syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 4.6MB Feb13 12)


















Final Project Handout (Microsoft Word 161kB Feb13 12)